I'm Taking the DIR Plunge

[lamont]

I think as you go further UP the training scale, you may get a little more pointed criticism, but you've pretty much signed up for it at that point, and I don't think GUE is any different from anybody else in that regard. In my surgical residency, if you screwed up, you heard about it, usually embellished with expletives reflecting on your ancestry and personal habits. High stakes create different training atmospheres.

Actually, I spied on a Tech 2 class review that Gideon and JJ were giving and it was even more professional. At that point you're hopefully dealing with pretty capable divers and it becomes a matter of tweaking and tuning...

 

[TheRedHead]

The bigger the ego, the more the humilation. It's a simple equation.

I can't agree with that. People aren't that simple. Some people have personalities which rebel against having their errors publicly displayed and has nothing to do with their ego. In a group of strangers, it would be very hard for some people to cope with it. It works well with a team that will remain a team, but can result in turning away if there is no bond with other team members, particularly if there is a disparity of ability among the group.

 

[TSandM]

Of our two weakest divers (and no, we were no team; none of us had ever met the others before the class), one has subsequently retaken the class and the other intends to. I think this argues for little or no perception of humiliation. Embarrassment there is in plenty, if one is embarrassed by having one's shortcomings displayed on videotape. But we were all in the same boat, and I, for one, never felt embarrassed. Disappointed, perhaps, but not embarrassed. Esprit de corps helps.

 

[TheRedHead]

Esprit de corps helps.

Exactly. And one needs to be very motivated for this type of class. From what I have read, almost everyone knows what to expect and are prepared for it. I don't think it would work with the average class of OW students.

 

[JeffG]

Of our two weakest divers (and no, we were no team; none of us had ever met the others before the class), one has subsequently retaken the class and the other intends to. I think this argues for little or no perception of humiliation. Embarrassment there is in plenty, if one is embarrassed by having one's shortcomings displayed on videotape. But we were all in the same boat, and I, for one, never felt embarrassed. Disappointed, perhaps, but not embarrassed. Esprit de corps helps.

Its not the "weak" divers that take it bad. Its the ones that think they are all squared away and then they find out they are not. Some of them can take it badly, or they can take it as a learning experience.

I've seen both. One diver quit diving, the other started practicing like mad. (There was actually a third person that was in the same boat, but he just kidded himself into believing that he had passed...kinda pitiful actually.)

 

[Adobo]

- Attempt to control your social environment, time and sources of social support by implication of rule #1. Most GUE people don't turn to people outside the group for help or big dives. This can be said for many diving organizations.

- Prohibit disconfirming information. Non-DIR topics are explicitly disallowed in DIR forums/groups. When someone posts in the DIR forum, you are to give the DIR answer and only the DIR answer. When you dare to post a non-DIR answer it is often discredited simply by it not being DIR. If you venture onto a DIR board non-DIR answers are ether an explicit TOS violation or you get a public lynching

- Make the person re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience. This is in fact, one of the primary goals of DIR-F. Ei: untrain your bad habits. Many people walk out of DIR-F and take a HUGE step backward in the kind of diving they have been doing. Some leave diving for ever. One of my class mates on my DIR-F almost stopped diving.

- Create a sense of powerlessness by subjecting the person to intense and frequent actions and situations which undermine the person's confidence in himself and his judgment. Training by humiliation seems to be a common theme in the GUE training I have witnessed or been part of. One of my dive buddies remembers going into the water at Peacock while a GUE debrief was going on. When he was done his dive (40 minutes later) the instructor was still pointing fingers and asking if the cave was still sore.

Anyway.. I'm done with this one. Do what you want to do. DIR-F will make most people a better diver.

GUE sounds like the second coming of the order of Skull and Bones. Perhaps this DIR thing is really a conspiracy to take over the free world. Or at the very least an attempt to secure control of all the oil in the middle east. Or maybe it is an effort to manipulate the American dollar/Chinese Yuan exchange rate. The possibilities are endless...

 

[SparticleBrane]

Hey at NCSU we take the "humiliation" route even further. Not only do the students get to watch their videos, they're encoded and *GASP* put up on the scuba website for everyone to see!! Now the students can not ony watch their own videos whenever they want, they can compare their video with the demo video to see the differences and critique themselves--at school and at home. They can see their video plus everyone else's, and vice versa.
Note that we will take down a video at a student's request, however. To be honest I've never heard any complaints about the videos being up...

From what I understand about Fundies, you watch the video with your classmates around but it isn't put up on the web and you don't get a copy of it, yes? I still have my videos from last year saved on my computer, although the ones from my OW class are mysteriously missing; probably were deleted out of embarassment.

 

[lamont]

Putting up DIRF videos on the web would just discourage students from taking the class even more.

I think that cave 3 and tech 3 class videos should be posted on the web though...

 

[marusso]

I sure hope someone else signs up for the class. I'm in the mood to have my ego smashed. Anyway, enough typing for now, I am going diving. See all you guys later.

-Michael

 

[SparticleBrane]

I think that cave 3 and tech 3 class videos should be posted on the web though...

They should be uploaded, I definitely agree. Everyone should be able to get them, and they should be in HD.